Otar Norwood

removed

Post deleted. I was being too neurotic.

I heard an interview with Hattingen recently where they discussed the regression of the industry and how results from other clinics that they're seeing now are, on average, worse than they were in 2012.

Hair mills like this, I think, are a big part of this regression.

What most people don't realize is that Turkey is still a profoundly impoverished country -- the average salary there is $300 a MONTH. 11% live below the poverty line putting it right around the level of Costa Rica. And their medical industry has extremely poor oversight, particularly for medical tourism as they have a heavily nationalistic political system.

Of course they will tell you what you want to hear until they get your money. Then once you're done -- goodbye stranger, it's been nice. There are no repercussions for them if they screw up. They have everything to gain and you have everything to lose.

If you can't afford a hair transplant, don't get it. Good surgeons are expensive for a reason.

On 4/10/2021 at 3:57 PM, Aftermath said:

And a little reminder of the starting point after a botched procedure for the frontal 1/3 in a U.K. clinic  😂😂😂

From Jude Law to Andrew Garfield. 

This is very normal for your stage.

On 11/11/2021 at 7:30 AM, Mark Wolfer said:

Hasson's staff recommended putting jojoba oil on to keep the skin from getting irritated and it may help slightly with the pinkness.

How soon after surgery did they say you could start this?

Holy crap I had no idea about strut. Thank you.

A number of European docs seem to be recommending topical dutasteride (Mwamba, Hattingen, etc.).

Is this available in the united states? Is there a way to order it from Europe make it myself?

I have been on oral dutasteride for several years but am considering stopping.

This is an incredible result. Hattingen is solid af. Please keep us updated.

Melvin, if this is inappropriate to ask please remove this post but why did he leave? Was it a decision on his part or did something happen?

Goddamn that's a transformation. Please keep us updated. Wow.

Lorenzo's yield with Konior's hairline design. Mwamba is a special surgeon.

Do you have any pictures of your entire scalp before and after and with different lighting? Very hard to see the forest from the trees based on what you've posted.

Saw this on Reddit and it gave me a chuckle, thought you all would enjoy. Not sure how much is filler but it is a stunning transformation.

"

Very interesting to see an FUE from Hattingen! Did you get an idea from Dr. Muresanu as to how much strip vs FUE they are doing?

Happy growing, you're ready to start sprouting.

This is as good as it gets. Please keep updating! 

On 10/9/2020 at 3:00 PM, J5_95 said:

- The number of grafts sounded high to me, but I trusted the Doctor's recommendation and the density looks as though it directly matches that of my native hair. 

I suspect the high graft count for the coverage is because your hair is so fine.

Think about your head as a swimming pool filled with water and you're trying to cover its surface. If you use beach balls, you'll need fewer balls but with tennis balls, you're going to need many more to get the same coverage.

Would love an update as well, though it seems like you completely filled in by 5 months.

Thank you so much for sharing! Please keep updating. 

Also, you might think about switching to dutasteride if your hair loss keeps progressing, it really put everything on freeze for me. Otherwise you're filling a bucket of sand with a hole in the bottom.

You're coming along sir. Please keep us updated over the next few months.

I really admire when someone decides to share. Please continue to update as things evolve.

Looks amazing. Please keep the updates coming.

This is how AI will be used to give a more honest answer to the FUE vs FUT debate.

Holy shit that's incredible. 

On 5/20/2021 at 9:32 AM, Curious25 said:

If it was this match up I would favour the North American doctors over those 3 names mentioned, merely based on having seen more patient posted threads from H&W and Konior - however I haven’t and don’t read non English speaking forums, so that’s not to say there aren’t the equivalent volumes of patient posted threads from the aforementioned Spanish trio. 
 

Qui Bono summarised it pretty well in terms of legislative differences culturally. 
 

Hair calibre plays a huge role, and native Mediterranean patients do tend to have favourable characteristics. 
 

Europe is also very pro FUE - there aren’t many clinics at all that primarily opt for FUT these days over this neck of the woods, which could also help us identify a potential joining of the dots to help answer your question, and it may come down to doctors attitudes; 

Traditionally, hair transplant doctors were focused on playing it conservative with looking to restore slight coverage on top, and not creating aggressive hair lines, or using huge amounts of grafts. This was also during the era of when FUT ruled. 
 

As far as I’m aware, FUT still plays a pretty dominant role across North America, therefore one could potentially assume that the ingrained culture of being more conservative may also still apply across many surgeons and clinics.
 

Without sounding like I’m saying these clinics are stuck in the stone ages, what I’m hypothesising is that European clinics are perhaps more daring, and ambitious with their strategies and clinical protocols, holding a more modern outlook on what is feasible with hair restoration in 2021. 

On 5/20/2021 at 7:42 AM, Baldingsoomtm said:

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster. I hope this post does not come off rude or ignorant. If so, please educate me.

 

I’ve been researching HT for the past four years. Early on in my research I came across a certain surgeon in Spain who’s work is seemingly impeccable. Later in my research I learned of the pitfalls and risks of hair transplants, one of them being to not always trust the results you see clinics post as they typically only post their optimal candidates and results. So I dug a little deeper, joined some Spanish HT forums to see unbiased, direct from the patient experiences. And still, this particular Docs work seems to be miles ahead of anyone in North America, I mean it’s like not even close. And again looking at the Spanish forums it’s consistent.

 

and look don’t get me wrong, there are some great results from the top guys in N. America. It just seems significantly less consistent compared to this guy. Even guys that seemingly have ideal donors, stable loss, same type of hair caliber as the patients posted by this Spanish doc rarely have the same quality results. 
 

im curious about this because I am Italian/Spanish dissent myself. I’m NW 2 in the temples and diffuse crown thinning. My genetics will likely put me at NW4 by 40-45(I’m 32 now). I’ve met with two top surgeons in the US and they both have said similar things about my case. I have excellent donor and will likely have many many grafts available in the future. But both also said they would rather start with the hairline and see how the crown progresses before moving to that area, which I agree with and makes sense. I’m still probably about one to two years out before I want to pull the trigger on anything, so I’m just shopping around. That being said money really is no object to me for this type of elective surgery so I want the best. Only problem is the surgeon I really want to meet with has suspended consultations due to back logs from COVID. I’m contemplating wiring an amount of money they wouldn’t be able to ignore if I could skip that line in the future haha. 
 

...but anyway, I’ve got some time to still research and think about it. So what’s the deal? Does this guy really just have a leg up on everyone else? I’m not sure I buy the “well he only cherry picks ideal candidates” entirely although I do know there is some truth to it. What else am I missing?

It takes a village to do a hair transplant properly, particularly FUE -- no matter how good one guy is, if his team is not legally allowed to help or not extremely good, the patient will suffer. Spain has really mastered the art of finding good help.

On 1/21/2021 at 5:25 AM, randomdude6971 said:

Well I’m all healed up now, and I’d say the healing process was about the same, if not easier for me than a common cold. 
 

If by diffuse inflammation you mean systemic, I’d say unlikely unless there was sepsis, which i seriously doubt I had. And pulmonary embolism, I’m gonna go ahead and say 0% chance I had that. 
 

Im a younger dude. I’d wager that symptoms that severe are exponentially more likely in the elderly. Crazy though to think what some people go through with COVID

If someone gets sick while healing from surgery, their healing will be affected. If someone gets very sick, their healing will be very affected.

Where did you publish your case? Who did your surgery? FUE or FUT? What country? At what point in your healing did you get COVID? Was it confirmed by molecular or antigen test or antibody titer? What do you mean by "tested positive"?

And how would you be able to tell the effect on your transplant? That while you got sick your hair just started falling out? Are you measuring yield? And how would you compare this to yield if you hadn't gotten sick?

The only way to reliably assess this would be large scale randomized controlled trials. It is very unlikely that research will answer the question as to whether COVID impacts hair transplants during our lifetimes. We haven't even adequately answered whether FUE or FUT is better. There is no scientifically reproducible way to measure yield at this point -- AI will likely provide this in the next 20 years. Hair transplant science is in its earliest infancy.

Once we can define the question, then we can start giving better answers. In the mean time, I think you're asking in a way that guarantees the answer you want because you're not looking for the answer you don't want.